The Last Juror

Rating:
Summary: Good, but for a Grisham book?
Review: I'll be honest, this is the first Grisham book I've read. I though it was a great book, as far as a novel depicting a character and a town, and the changes that both go through over time. However, it wasn't what I expected with my first Grisham novel. The main point of the book was not the murder which happens in the first 20 pages. I will make this comparison: If the film "A Time To Kill" is an exact representatin of the book, and you enjoyed reading the book, then "The Last Juror" is one you want to stay away from

Rating:
Summary: Not Grisham's Best
Review: In "The Last Juror," John Grisham attempts to blend the style of the legal thrillers which made his career with the old-fashioned and atomspheric quality of "The Painted House." The result is not unsuccessful, but it's also not up to Grisham's usual standard.

Grisham tries to capture the feeling of rural Mississippi in the 1970s, but his descriptions aren't very period-specific; the story could be taking place at any point in the past 60 years. Sentences are often confusingly constructed, as if Grisham wrote the novel in a hurry and didn't edit it. Miss Callie is a nicely drawn, complex character, but the rest of the cast is superficial by comparison.

The dust jacket tries to play up the suspense element: "...men and women who served on a jury nine years ago are starting to die one by one--as a killer exacts the ultimate revenge." But don't be fooled: the killing of jurors doesn't begin until the last fifth of the book. I'm terrible at figuring out mysteries, but the identity of this killer was obvious even to me.

Grisham tries to throw too much into the mix: life in rural Mississippi, desegregation, Vietnam, a discourse on Southern churches, an expose of the legal and parole system in Mississippi in the 1970s, a Wal-Mart style incursion -- all in addition to his legal story. There is so much material that nothing can be treated in depth. Nothing, that is, except the marvelous descriptions of Southern cuisine.

"The Last Juror" is an enjoyable read, but it is not up to the quality I have come to expect from such a fine author as John Grisham.

Rating:
Summary: GRISHAM HAUNTS THE "HALLS OF JUSTICE" AGAIN ... A MASTER
Review: The Last Juror is a very intriguing story and I was pleased to learn more about the southern town of Clanton, Mississippi where Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, was also set.
Being a life-long journalist, former newspaper owner, and current author, I particularly related to the newspaper angle in this book.
Grisham is the master of the courtroom, so I'm glad he's back haunting the "halls of justice." It's a page-turner, as I find all of Grisham's work. His superb style and suspenseful "twists and turns" held my interest from beginning to end.
Reviewer - Betty Dravis, author of MILLENNIUM BABE: THE PROPHECY and the soon-to-be-released young adult novel, THE TOONIES INVADE SILICON VALLEY




Rating:
Summary: Pleasant to read, if slow
Review: It seems to me that how you rate this unusual Grisham story depends on what kind of story you are judging it as. It you judge it as a fast-paced legal thriller, it's worth only two or three stars. But if you judge it as a historical story of small town life in the deep south, three decades ago, in which most things that happen are very ordinary, except for some events connected to a sensational murder/rape case, then you give it four or five stars. (Since legal thrillers make more money than small town stories, and the publisher is promoting the thriller angle, I'm wondering why the publisher didn't just insist on another legal thriller. Maybe the publisher is so afraid to loose such a lucrative author that he or she just has to publish anything he writes, and Grisham just felt like writing this one.)

The story is not very complicated. In the early 70s, Willie Traynor, after doing poorly at university up north, buys the struggling local newspaper in Clanton, Miss., and spends the next nine years struggling to build its circulation. And as he does so, writing about events in the region, we get to understand the social set up in the deep south in the 70s, with all its race problems. I have never lived in the south, and found his account quite interesting.

The sensational events, related in about a third of the book, involve a brutal rape murder by Danny Padgitt, no-good son of a dubious but wealthy Padgitt clan, whose stronghold is in a river peninsula near the Tennessee state line. Danny is convicted, and goes to jail swearing revenge on the jurors, one of which is an older black woman, Callie Ruffin. Callie is from the other side of the tracks in Clanton, but has unusually successful children, except for one wayward son. Willie covers the story of the murder in detail, in spite of threats from the Padgitt clan. He also becomes a friend of Callie, and uses his newspaper to inform the white community of how smart her children are, and how well they're doing. But nine years later, when a corrupt lawyer gets Danny out of jail, jurors start getting killed, and Callie's life is in danger ....

The writing is very good, and the book is pleasant to read, if slow. I just finished reading the Star Wars Epic "Labyrinth of Evil", and compared with that it's a snail's pace. It's certainly no legal thriller either, but it has a charm all of it's own. I figure it's worth the average of 2-3 stars for a thriller and 4-5 stars for an interesting small town story about a part of the country I know little about. That works out to 3.5 stars, so I'll give it four stars.


Rating:
Summary: Not really a legal thriller, but a very enjoyable read...
Review: While I've enjoyed almost every Grisham work, I've always hoped that he would stick to the legal thriller genre that I wanted.

Even with only a small focus on legal issues, I couldn't put _The Last Juror_ down. The main players were at most caricatures of stereotypical people - the extraordinarily educated and well-spoken 1970s Southern Black Woman, the Loser College Grad turned Small Town Millionaire, the corrupt Southern Sheriff, the drinking, gossiping local Southern Lawyer, etc. However, this use of caricatures managed to make an engaging read due to Grisham's knack at good storytelling.

My only negative about this work is that the ending twist is entirely predictable due to what seems to be an odd storyline in the midst of the book.

This 'giveaway' didn't spoil my enjoyment of the work. I do recommend this to people who enjoy Grisham's legal works.

Rating:
Summary: Astonishingly perceptive
Review: Although I've spent most of my adult life in the North (and in foreign countries) I was raised in the rural South many years ago, and can still blend in, all these years later, because I know the customs and manners, the friendliness and suspicions, the respect and tensions and admiration and hatreds and loyalties and betrayals, and the proper way to introduce oneself to a small Southern town where one isn't known, in order to gain prompt acceptance as one of "us" rather than one of "them". I have also served on juries, and know by personal experience the wrenching debates in a jury room when the judge's instructions on the law conflict with the good sense of ordinary people about what verdict is appropriate, given the special circumstances of the case.

Grisham's books sell because they're well written, gripping and entertaining. But I wish to commend two in particular because they portray far better than most novels do the way in which Southern customs work well and the ways they work badly, and because his accounts of grand jury and trial jury deliberations match what I've been involved in.

If you wish to understand the complexities of Southern culture, both good and evil, read "A Time to Kill" and "The Last Juror". How Grisham knows as much as he does, I have no idea, but he portrays details that I know from personal experience, that I have found no other author describing as well.

Rating:
Summary: Good read,
Review: This was a light-hearted book to read. It was fast-paced book. I consider it to be one of Grisham's best. Grisham returned to legal thriller with style after his most recent books (Bleachers, Painted House, etc.). The Juror is presented through the eyes of the local newspaper editor. Like all Grisham books, it comes to a very sudden and abrupt ending, but for a change, it doesn't deviate from the story .In this novel John Grisham has created an intense, fascinating and revealing study of a small southern town, and created lively characters that developed with the story. His details are plentiful. This is a lovely historical fiction.

DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE RUNAWAY JURY

Rating:
Summary: The Last Juror? No, the latest BORE!!
Review: This was nothing like any of Grisham's past novels....the title alone is nothing like you'd expect. First, there was no 'last' juror...only 3 died in the book. And there was no single juror that held any precidence over the others at all that had any major plot line of the story. I feel that two thirds of the novel is completely irrelevant. I'm sure that it would be interesting to anyone wanting to know about the history of Clanton during the 70's; to them it would have been astounding....but no, it was a historical bore!

I wanted a courtroom thriller, but really, any drama in the courtroom happened completely randomly in the last 10 pages....I kept reading only because I wanted the monotonous story line to end.

If you are looking forward to one another one of Grisham's better thriller, wait till his next book....this one is a bore from page 5 through 455. Sleep Tight!!

Rating:
Summary: Somebody is Killing off the Jury, Guess Who!
Review: John Grisham has done it again! The Last Juror is a fast paced thriller that everyone is sure to enjoy. There's plenty of grit, humor and social commentary (Grisham addresses the issue of racism in the South during the 1970's) to keep the reader not only interested, but also guessing, until the end.

The story is set in a Mississippi town called Clayton during the Seventies. A young reporter, Willie Traynor, has just come to own the town's small newspaper and is determined to boost readership by writing of a rape and murder trial. Reporting of these crimes is against his best interest, as they were committed by a member of the Padgitt family. Previous people who've tangoed with the Padgitt's have wound up dead. Willie
not only covers the story, but starts a crusade of sorts to see that justice is served and that Danny Padgitt goes to prison for life. When Danny Padgitt is released from prison less than ten years later, members of the jury that served against him start getting murdered...

To tell more of the story here would only ruin it for those who haven't had the chance to read the book yet. Let me just say that this is a very enjoyable read. Grisham goes into great detail in describing Clayton and the characters are very well developed. This is the perfect book to curl up and read for hours.

Rating:
Summary: WORST BOOK TO ME; OTHERS FIND IT BEST.
Review: This is the worst book I've ever read because it was advertised as a THRILLER but there was zero suspense. It was such a boring book that it's a wonder that I even finished it. In contrast, I read the DA Vinci Code in 3 days because I simply couldn't put the book down.
If the Last Juror had been advertised as a novel about a small Southern town, somewhat like To Kill A Mockingbird, I would have had a different mindset and probably would have enjoyed it more. I read Mockingbird in 3 days also.